The HLC Dam may get built but it will be a long time before we see a treatment plant and water pumped 18 miles from High Shoals and then Treated Water pumped 18 miles back to Oconee County. Just think about that scenario and the cost!!!

AVOC

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June 30, 2012

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Oconee-Walton HLC Reservoir Project Has Many and Expensive Challenges Ahead

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By Wendell Dawson, Editor, AVOC, Inc

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The Supreme Court let stand this week the decision of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that gave the Metro Atlanta area rights to water from Lake Lanier. This takes much pressure off Atlanta and Georgia concerning a future drinking water source. There has been a rush for more regional reservoirs, which is not all bad. There has been speculation that the Oconee-Walton County Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Project could sell water to Metro Atlanta. That seems less likely now that Lanier is back in the picture.

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Hard Labor Creek Reservoir is a $ 353 million reservoir project. The Walton County Water Authority is having trouble raising $ 32 Million for the land and Dam. It is looking to the State for that money. SEE Oconee BOC Minutes of 6.26.12.

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Some have contended for sometime that Hard Labor Creek Reservoir was Residential Development Driven.That goal can be met with only the dam and no treatment plant or distribution lines. The HLC Dam may get built but it will be a long time before we see a treatment plant and water pumped 18 miles from High Shoals and then Treated Water pumped 18 miles back to Oconee County. Just think about that scenario and the cost!!!

Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Project Update:Jimmy Parker of Precision Planning, Inc. presented an update on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Project and the Governor’s Water Supply Program application.Mr. Parker reported permitting, design and mitigation are 100% complete.Land acquisition is 71% complete, with 20% in the negotiation stages and 9% remaining.He stated the project is under budget and shovel ready.Local funding invested to date is $ 59M.

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Additional funding of $ 32M is required to complete the project. Mr. Parker explained an application has been made for Direct State Investment funding through the Governor’s Water Supply Program.14 applications were submitted, with Hard Labor Creek as the only project fully permitted and ready for construction.Final awards are expected to be made in late July or early August.

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6-25-12 Supreme Court rules in Georgia’s favor in the Water dispute with Florida & Alabama

"By denying a hearing of the decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the tri-state water case, the nation's highest court has affirmed that drinking water was always an authorized use of Lake Lanier," Deal said. "We felt confident in the firm grounding of the Eleventh Circuit ruling. We can now move forward with this issue behind us, have the governors work together and come to a long-term agreement that will provide for the water needs of all three states."

Olens said he was pleased that the 11th Circuit's decision is now law, "making clear that Lake Lanier can indeed be used for water supply for Georgia. It is my hope that we can finally put this decades-long legal dispute to rest and work together with our sister states — in meeting rooms, not courtrooms — to develop a fair and equitable water sharing plan and promote a strong and vibrant Southeastern region."

……The Supreme Court said it won’t intervene in the decades-long “water wars” among Georgia, Alabama and Florida, letting stand a lower-court ruling allowing metro Atlanta to take drinking water from Lake Lanier.

If Lake Lanier continues to supply Atlanta residents with water, that reduces the need for new reservoirs upstream of Athens like the proposed Glades Reservoir in Hall County, said April Ingle, executive director of the Georgia River Network, an Athens environmental group.

Metro Atlanta utilities are also less likely to try to suck water from the Oconee River basin that supplies water to Athens, such as by buying water from the Hard Labor Creek reservoir serving Walton and Oconee counties, Ingle said.

“It seems pretty clear now that that idea doesn’t make sense,” she said.

Florida and Alabama officials have argued since 1990 that North Georgia residents take too much water from the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apachicola rivers at the expense of wildlife, agriculture and people downstream.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson signed an order in 2009 that would have severely restricted the city’s withdrawals from the reservoir to levels last seen in the 1970s — when the city was a fraction of its current size — unless the political leaders of Alabama, Florida and Georgia struck a deal ending the impasse. No deal has been struck.

But last year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the looming water cutoff and found that Atlanta had a claim to water from the reservoir. The court instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine how much water the city can use.

“By denying a hearing of the decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the tri-state water case, the nation’s highest court has affirmed that drinking water was always an authorized use of Lake Lanier,” Deal said in a written statement. “We felt confident in the firm grounding of the Eleventh Circuit ruling. We can now move forward with this issue behind us, have the governors work together and come to a long-term agreement that will provide for the water needs of all three states.”

The proposed reservoir will have 47 miles of shore line. While the site is in a rural area, the tax map of the site shows many residential lots already marked out, especially southwest and northerly of the reservoir.

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HARD LABOR CREEK RESERVOIR PROJECT WAS APPROVED ON A SPLIT VOTE BY COMMISSIONERS DAVIS, LUKE AND NORRIS in March 2007.

AnAP story this week – which ran in practically all the major papers in the state – puts a distinct question-mark on Gov. Nathan Deal’s reservoir-building plan. As an example, the article uses Canton’s Hickory Log Creek Reservoir, which “took years to finish and was expensive, running $ 75 million over original budget estimates,” the AP reports.

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The point is a general one: new reservoirs take years to build and are very expensive – even without cost overruns, which are often more the rule than the exception. The question before Georgians today on water issues is largely one of public spending priorities.

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Be sure to givethat storya read. In other news, the Athens Banner-Herald has an update on the foundering Hard Labor Creek Reservoir project, whose backers are looking to Atlanta for what could easily be called a bailout for a failed endeavor. As we’ve noted before, the story of the Hard Labor Creek project stands as a cautionary tale with broad applicability when it comes the financial side of lake-building.

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In a nutshell, Hard Labor Creek is on the rocks because the new water customers who were supposed to pay off its debt have not materialized. (The shame of it all is that existing customers are paying that bill.) Demand projections were overblown. And if the project is in trouble because its presumed water demand does not exist, then should it even be built? It’s clear from the numbers in the Banner-Herald story that even an infusion of state money can’t save this project. Can’t Georgians statewide avoid repeats of this story by accepting a reality check on reservoirs?

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One more important note: Hard Labor Creek backers suggest in the story that their project has “political advantage” at the money trough because it’s in a river basin that doesn’t cross any state lines on its way to the sea. The issue here is interbasin transfer, and the assumption – frankly, an offensive one – is that downstream Georgians have no seat at the table.

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Then again, this project’s proponents seem to be grasping at straws. For example, does anyone really think that Gov. Deal’s reservoir money will magically turn from bonds into grants?